Sermon Tone Analysis

The Price of Spiritual Passion

 

Today, as we look at the price that must be paid in the pursuit of spiritual passion, there are four principles I want us to grab and absorb.

The first Principle today is this:

*God will test our hunger for Him, by what we are willing to sacrifice*.

You see loved ones, it’s one thing to say you are hungry for God…it is quite another to be willing to demonstrate it through sacrifice.

And the only way to discover our willingness to sacrifice is by a test.

So if you are pursuing a deep and meaningful relationship with God, you will be tested.

Why?

The reason is simply this: it must be demonstrated clearly that the passion of our lives is for God and not merely what God can provide.

The text that demonstrates this powerfully is the account of Abraham and Isaac.

So please open your Bibles please to Genesis 22.

 

*GENISES 22:1a*  Now that’s a phrase that when you are studying the Bible, should cause you to stop and ask a question – what things?

Well this episode in Abraham’s life comes after a period of blessing: *21:1-2  *IOWs, Abraham is having a wonderful time, things could not be better when all of a sudden chapter 22 shows up.

Now, isn’t it amazing how God always seems to give a test at the wrong time?

I’m almost scared to have a good day, know what I mean?

 

*22:1-2 *You talk about a major exam.

God says, “Go to Mt. Moriah, just as you have done before, but this time, I want you to sacrifice your son…your only son…and let Me make it clear Abraham…it’s the one whom you love.”

Now, many of us wouldn’t mind God testing us, as long as the test didn’t include a one-of-a-kind request.

IOWs, “God, test me over my left-overs.”

Is anybody listening?

In other words, test me over stuff I’m not using anyway.

That’s why in the area of giving God says, “Return to Me the *first* 10% not what you have left over.

So God asks Abraham to give Him the most precious thing in his life.

Why—because only when we are tested in an area of affection do we see who we really love.

And so the question of this series, the one you’ve heard before and will hear again: *Which do you love more?

God or His gifts?*

God wants to know loved ones, are we going to put Him first.

But doesn’t God know already?

Of course God knows what you’re going to do, but you don’t.

That’s why Jesus said this in *LUKE 14:26 (LB) (sermon notes)*.

In other words, everything else must be second.

Abraham was asked to sacrifice something very precious in his life.

So let me ask you, what is the Isaac in your life?

Let me give you a definition: an Isaac is that which you count precious, because it involves your affections.

/Perhaps it’s a relationship/ that is clearly not what God would have you be involved in…perhaps it’s a situation God would not have us in, perhaps it’s /a thing we have that God wants us to let go of,/ I don’t know what the Isaac is in your life, but we will be tested.

But here’s the good news… /Whenever God test you regarding your Isaac, it means God is about to move you to a greater level of responsibility in the kingdom./

Let me say it again, whenever God brings you to this kind of test that is going to require of you all the spiritual reserve you have, it’s because God is ready to move you to a greater level of responsibility and relationship in the Kingdom.

There’s a second principle that comes out of this passage: 

*In testing our Hunger, God is trying our faith.*

God says, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love, and offer him as a burnt offering.”

Now the problem with that is, it just doesn’t make sense.

Why – because God has promised the establishment of a nation with descendents through Isaac too numerous to count.

So how is this promise going to be fulfilled if Isaac becomes the sacrifice?

Sometimes the tests of God just don’t make sense.

LIKE…Why would God give me this job and now everything is falling apart?

Why would God lead me to this place, and now I can’t even make ends meet?

Why would God bring this person in my life and then take them away?

Because it’s a test.

And the question is always the same:  Do you love God more, than anything else?

And indeed, when we are in a test we may not be able to figure out what in the world God is doing.

And He may not answer us even if we ask, because what God is trying…is our faith.

So how does Abraham do?

 

*V3a*   I don’t know about you, but I would have been saying, “Woe is me.

How could God ask this, how could God demand this?

I am depressed.”

Not Abraham, *when Abraham was tested, Abraham was quick to respond.*

IOWs, he does not understand God’s word at this point, but neither does he argue with it.

There was an immediate response.

Now, let me explain something, when God has us in this kind of test that we can’t understand, He may also put us in a place where we can’t even explain it to anybody else.

Anybody ever been in a situation like that?

You don’t even know how to explain the place in which you find yourself, so that you could ask for help…even if help were available!

In fact, to try and explain it…would have made you look like more of a fool.

*V5: *Did you catch that?

Abraham said, “*We* will worship” (that meant killing his son) and then, “*WE* will return” (that meant coming back with the son he just killed.)

Now that’s a statement of faith.

IOWs, Abraham said, “God told me that He was going to make of my son a great nation, but God also told me to sacrifice my son – now that’s a contradiction, you can’t make a great nation out of a dead man – so, I don’t know what’s going to happen up there.

All I know is, I’m going to church like God told me and I’m going to let God worry about it.

All I know is… we will be back.”

In fact, even Isaac has a question:  *V7  *“Daddy, every other time we’ve come up here we’ve had the stuff for the sacrifice: the wood for the fire and the rope and the lamb, today I see everything but the lamb, and I don’t understand, daddy.”

Now, Abraham could have said, “You it, boy.”

I would have said that.

But look at Abraham’s response: *V8 *That is, God knows best how to take care of Himself.

In other words, “I’m putting this one on God,” Abraham said, “Because this one is beyond me.”

In fact, some of the stuff you face goes beyond counseling.

Some of it goes beyond talking to our friends.

Some of it goes beyond reading books or   going to conferences and seminars, because some of this stuff is what God is doing uniquely with you.

And so God is going to have to be your sole Provider.

It’s interesting, Hebrews 11, give us a little more information about this story.

Now how could this be?

Well recall if you will, after the Resurrection, it says in Luke 24:44, Jesus taught His disciples and open their minds to the Scriptures.

I believe *Hebrews 11* is one of the results of this moment, because verses 17 to 19 give us insight as to what Abraham was thinking: *VV 17-19 (MSG)**(sermon notes) *Now that helps us understand what Abraham meant when he said, “The boy and I will return.”

Abraham thought he had a resurrection on his hands.

His thinking was probably something like this, “Surely God is going to change His mind before I get up there, but in case He makes me do this weird thing, God is able to raise Isaac from the dead.”

In other words, Abraham believed in the power of God!

 

Now let me tell you something, if God asks of you something strange, and you are sure it’s from God, understand, there is an answer out there somewhere.

Have you ever been there?

Have you ever taken a test and come across a question and said, “/What?

Where did the teacher get this one?

We didn’t cover this material/.”

And later you go up to the teacher and challenge her and she gives you the answer, and you say, “Oh, I guess I did know that.”

The same is true of God…

 

God never gives tests for which there is no an answer, but He does give tests where you sure enough do not have the answer in advance, *and you have to simply believe that God is able.*

Abraham believed God is able.

Okay, here’s principle 3…if you miss everything else, don’t miss this one:  *God will address our spiritual hunger only in the context of sacrificial worship.*

Look at *V9a*...“an altar”…an altar is a place of sacrificial worship, *V9b.*

Listen to me…is there something God wants you to put on the altar?

In the Bible anybody who did not bring a sacrifice to the altar, was not considered to be worshipping, even if they were right in front of the altar.

In other words, you aren’t worshipping just because you show up.

What is more…if like Abraham, you believe God is your only answer, worship will have your highest priority, and you will worship even though you don’t understand what’s happening to you.

IOWs, you will worship even though you can’t figure it out, and you will take it all the way: *V10*